


late night lullaby

by VeteranKlaus



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Au they're in 2019 and have their own place, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:14:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27293263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VeteranKlaus/pseuds/VeteranKlaus
Summary: In which Klaus has a nightmare, but this time Dave is there to help him afterwards.
Relationships: Klaus Hargreeves/David "Dave" Katz
Comments: 29
Kudos: 159





	late night lullaby

**Author's Note:**

> Shout out to Sara for the idea!!   
> Pure soft Klave,,, what they deserve

Klaus wakes up with his heart in his throat, hammering violently, not allowing him to get a single breath in. 

He fumbles to sit up, one hand clawing at his burning chest as he gasps, swallowing down the yell in his throat. Blankets fall down his body and bunch up on his lap, and it takes him a moment to pull himself from his nightmare - from a cold, dark place that smells of damp and rot and is filled with screams - and into the present.

He’s in a bed, mattress soft beneath him, warmed by his body and the one next to him. The room is dim, but there are fairy lights strung around the whole room that are on and chase away the shadows and help to chase away the nightmare lingering with him. The sound of a city filters through to him, muffled between the walls around him and the ringing in his ears. 

Klaus screws his eyes shut and presses the heels of his hands against them, trying to erase the images of his nightmare from his mind, but he’s pulled from his thoughts when an arm slips around his stomach.

“Hey,” croaks Dave, his voice raspy and deep with sleep. The mattress squeaks lightly as he sits up, rubbing at his own eyes. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Klaus opens his mouth to tell him, but he can’t quite find his voice. Instead, a choked noise slips out, and his eyes sting. He slaps a hand over his mouth and cringes, but it’s already bubbling over and he can’t hold back the shaking of his shoulders. 

Dave notices it immediately and he sits up properly and coaxes him closer, murmuring gently, and Klaus follows him until he’s leaning against his chest. “Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Dave says, holding him close in his arms, running one hand down his side. His lips brush against his hair, and he holds him until he stops shaking, until he can breathe again, until the rapid beating of his heart isn’t so deafening.

Dave keeps holding him nonetheless, and the feeling of his arms around him, firm chest against his, grounds and comforts him. He knows he’s safe here, in Dave’s arms, in their apartment.

And damn, if that doesn’t sound surreal. It’s taken them a while to get here, what with the first apocalypse, and how Five had to go back to save Dave, and both of them adjusting to being back together; but by now they’ve both managed to settle, at least somewhat. So have the rest of his siblings, or at least they’re beginning to settle down a little by now, falling back into their lives while being more prevalent in one another’s life than they have been in a long time. It’s… nice. It’s really nice, Klaus has to admit. They’re growing closer as a family, and they believe him about Ben, and he’s sober, and Dave’s alive, and they have their own apartment together, and things are working out. Things are working out well.

That doesn’t mean he doesn’t still have nightmares. He has plenty of those.

At least now, though, he can wake up and Dave is there to support him. He doesn’t have to deal with them alone anymore. 

“Are you okay?” Dave asks him, voice hushed a little, speaking gently into the quiet of their bedroom. Feeling more steady in his bedroom, Klaus bobs his head in a nod, twisting a little and peeling away from him so that he can look at him. 

His hair’s a mess from sleep, eyes still a little heavy, but he smiles at Klaus and looks at him like he’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen, despite the fact that Klaus is certain he looks rough this early in the morning. 

“I’m okay,” he mumbles. When Dave lifts a hand to cup his cheek, he closes his eyes and leans into the touch, exhaling shakily. The nightmare still clings to him, and he tries not to focus on the way he can still hear the cries of the dead in the shells of his ears; the voice of his father declaring  _ three more hours.  _

Instead, he tries to focus on Dave, and his strong arms around him, the warmth of his body and the bed surrounding him. Outside, rain patters against the window. 

“Do you want to talk?” Dave offers, running a hand through his hair. 

Klaus thinks about cold hands and colder eyes and screaming, and he shakes his head rapidly. “No, no - it’s fine,” he insists. He ducks his head, tucking it under Dave’s chin, cuddling closer to his lover. 

“Okay,” he says easily, not pushing the subject any more. His chin nudges the top of his head before being replaced briefly with his lips. “That’s fine.”

For a while, they just sit there, with Klaus curled up against Dave’s chest and Dave playing with his hair, something he knows that Klaus enjoys and that always helps to relax him. He could almost fall asleep like this, if he weren’t afraid of what waited for him in his dreams. Nonetheless, he was content to just stay there like that, or perhaps lay down so that Dave could fall back to sleep and he could still enjoy the embrace. 

Then Dave nudges him, forcing them to part, and he offers a small smile. “Come on,” he says, coaxing him out of the bed. The floor is cold beneath his feet, and he misses the coziness of their bed, the comfort of his embrace, but Dave keeps a hand in one of his own and guides him through their small apartment and into their bathroom. He doesn’t flick the light on, so Klaus keeps close to him in the darkness, holding tightly onto him until he starts lighting the candles around the room that Klaus has begun to collect. 

“What’re you planning?” He asks, curiosity peaked as he watches little flames dance around them. He lets Dave’s hand fall from his as he wanders over to the bath - they were lucky to find an apartment with an actual bathtub, although Klaus never would have settled for one without one - and turns the taps to fill it up.

“Well, sometimes it’s nice to get an early start to the day,” Dave hums, checking the temperature of the water with his fingertips. He fumbles around to find some bubble mix, pouring a generous amount in, and then he perches himself on the edge of the tub. Klaus quirks an eyebrow at him.

“At… four in the morning?”

Dave’s eyes bounce to the little seashell clock on the wall and then he shrugs, offering an innocent smile. “Why not?”

Klaus’ feet carry him forwards until his legs bump into Dave’s knees, and Dave has to tilt his head up to look at him. “This wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with a certain nightmare, would it?”

Dave hums, and his hands search for Klaus’, slipping their fingers together. “Well, maybe that, too,” he says. He squeezes Klaus’ hand before bringing one up to brush his lips over his knuckles. 

With a smile, Klaus allows him to tug him forwards until he’s sitting sideways on his lap, face hovering inches from him. “We can go back to sleep,” he tells him. It’s early, and Dave still looks tired, cloudy with sleep, and while he himself might not be able to fall back to sleep so easily tonight, that doesn’t mean Dave should deprive himself of it just for Klaus.

But Dave is nice, and he knows Klaus well enough to know he won’t fall asleep again, and so he shakes his head and dismisses the idea. “I think this’d be nice,” he says. 

“I’m okay,” Klaus insists, because he is. He’s okay. He’s just a little - tense. Shaken up.

Dave smiles nonetheless. “Of course you are. But I’d like to do this, if that’s okay with you.”

And how is Klaus supposed to deny him that? Sighing, he slumps into his chest. “Okay,” he drawls, peering at the bath over his shoulder. “You used my favourite bubble mix.”

“It smells nice,” Dave comments, running a hand through his hair. “Like… raspberry, and honey.”

“Honey, honey,” Klaus mumbles absently, and Dave’s chest rumbles beneath his cheek. 

“Honey for my honey,” Dave echoes, and then taps him. “Let me check the water. Honey.”

Snorting, Klaus peels himself off of him, saying, “that’s so cheesy.”

“You started it,” he accuses, wiggling his fingers in the water. He turns the taps off and then kicks his boxers off, moving them aside, and Klaus does the same. Dave steps into the bath first, then holds his hand out to help Klaus get situated in between his legs with his back against Dave’s chest. 

Hot water crawls up his body, bubbles clinging to his chest, and he can’t help but exhale slowly in relief. The candles crackle around the room and rain patters on the window and Dave’s chest rises and falls steadily beneath him, and it’s just  _ nice.  _ It’s just a kind of nice Klaus has never had before and now gets to have all the time with Dave.

For a while, they just sit there in peace, listening to the background noise of crackling flames, rain, and breathing. Dave sits his chin on his shoulder and peppers his neck with feather-light kisses. Slowly, the nightmare begins to bleed out of him, the shadows receding from his mind, and Klaus relaxes completely against Dave and just breathes, for a while; doing little more than existing in the moment.

Dave shuffles a little, and Klaus hears the pop of a cap opening. Water runs gently over his head, one of Dave’s hands by his hairline to stop water dripping down into his eyes, and once his hair is wet, he begins to massage shampoo into it. Klaus’ eyes flutter shut as his fingers run along his scalp, gently carding through his curls, and the smell of apples wafts down to his nose. A bubble slips down his face and Dave carefully wipes it away. 

He washes the shampoo out, oh so careful to make sure that none drip down into his eyes, and then does the same for the conditioner. By the time he washes that out too, Klaus feels almost boneless with how relaxed he is. He feels content like this, and completely safe here in Dave’s arms, as if no nightmare or memory or ghost could ever get him here; and if they tried to, Dave wouldn’t let them. Of course he wouldn’t.

Hair washed, he slumps back against Dave’s chest and Dave winds his arms around his waist. 

“I love you,” he murmurs, breath warm against the damp skin of his neck, and Klaus suppresses a shiver. He squeezes Dave’s hands in the water and tilts his head towards him.

“I love you too,” he says, cracking his eyes open just in time to catch Dave’s for a brief moment before he leans forwards, pressing a gentle kiss to the side of his head. “Thank you,” he adds quietly, and Dave rubs his arms.

“You don’t have to thank me,” he states. Klaus shrugs a shoulder half-heartedly.

“It helped,” he says, because it has. By himself, he’d still be sitting, trembling, chain-smoking, unless he had already gotten high enough to feel numb again, but the lingering chill of the nightmare would still be nestled in his bones, a presence he could never quite shake; and he can’t still for the most part, but this helps to push it away; to make it something small and insignificant, something Klaus can fight and win.

Dave runs a hand through his wet hair, pushing it back from his face, then lets his hand linger on the side of his face. “Good,” he says, a smile on his lips. Klaus closes his eyes, rests his head in his chest. Dave’s arms find their way around him once more, his chin resting atop his head, and Klaus lets himself float in the embrace, grounded by the weight of his arms and the crackle of candles and the patter of rain.

Usually after nightmares Klaus finds himself unable to fall back to sleep no matter how hard he might try; he can hardly even close his eyes and relax for a while after it, no matter how tired he might be. He’s always left feeling unnaturally cold and too vulnerable, too unsafe, to even attempt to go back to sleep, and it’s something he’s always hated; this feeling of fear that follows him everywhere, even in his own bedroom, in his own dreams. 

For the first time in a long time - for the first time at all, Klaus thinks - right now, he doesn’t feel scared. He feels perfectly safe. His hands aren’t trembling and he can close his eyes without holding his breath and jumping at skeletal faces burned into his eyelids.

Dave’s fingers draw little patterns on his skin and drops of water drip off his elbows. Dave’s heart beats steadily beneath his ear and isn’t this just everything he could ever dream of? They might not have the little farmhouse he and Dave had always spoken about in ‘Nam, but he didn’t mind. He felt as if nothing could get better than this moment. 

The world blurs around him a little bit, a mix of rain and candles and heart beats. Water swirls down a drain dizzyingly, echoing in his ears, and he rocks for a moment, but he only actually blinks his eyes open when something falls around him, confused. 

Dave, after blowing out the last of the candles - after somehow managing to slip out from behind Klaus and draining the bath - had draped a towel around him. Klaus hadn’t noticed him doing any of this.

“What-”

“Shhh,” Dave hushes gently, cupping his cheek, and Klaus melts into his touch. He seems like he knows what he’s doing and has everything under control, and Klaus’ eyes feel so heavy, and the way he gently dries his hair with a soft towel just encourages him to relax again. 

His eyes crack open once more when Dave hooks an arm beneath his knees and lifts him out of the bath with a grunt.

“Dave-” he says, a little disoriented - when did he pick him up? - but Dave squeezes his shoulder and presses a light kiss to the top of his head. 

“I’ve got you,” he says, voice a quiet murmur, and of course he has. He’s always there for Klaus.

A moment passes and Klaus feels himself being set back down on their bed, the damp towel around his shoulder being taken away and he helps shimmy himself beneath the blankets, revelling in the warmth beneath them. 

The bed dips as Dave gets into it beside him, and he replaces the pillow beneath his head with his chest. 

“‘M tired,” Klaus realises aloud. It’s hard to keep his eyes open, so he doesn’t bother trying to, but it still comes as a bit of a shock to him. It can’t have been more than an hour or so since his nightmare. He shouldn’t feel so tired, so comfortable, and yet here he is.

Dave runs his fingers through his hair, pushing it back from his face. “Get some sleep, darling,” he says gently. And, well, Klaus can’t argue with him. He finds himself drifting off to sleep almost immediately, and this time he dreams of something that makes him feel the need to smile a little, a soft warmth settled in his chest. 

**Author's Note:**

> Dare I say,,, babies?


End file.
